Standardized Citizens? Policy Narratives and the High School Citizenship Test

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: The Influences of Public Debate and Policy Narratives in Education

Abstract

A growing number of civic education organizations have emerged over the past twenty years in response to perceived weak civic knowledge and low civic engagement among American youth. Beginning in Arizona in 2015, one advocacy coalition has met with success in lobbying states to require that all high school students pass the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Naturalization Test. Using the Narrative Policy Framework as an interpretive lens, this study analyzes debates on the floor of the Arizona legislature to identify the arguments—or “narratives”—used by civics test advocates in favor of the civics test requirement. Implications are drawn for organizations seeking to advance their own policy agendas for civic education.

Author

• Norman Paul Gibbs, Arizona State University